Press releases March 2010http://press.web.cern.ch/press-releases/2010/03/le-cern-programme-un-premier-essai-de-collisions-%C3%A0-7-tev-dans-le-lhc?created=
CERN press office - press releasesenLHC research programme gets underwayhttp://press.web.cern.ch/press-releases/2010/03/lhc-research-programme-gets-underway
<span class="submitted-by">30 Mar 2010</span>
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<p>Geneva, 30 March 2010. Beams collided at 7 TeV in the LHC at 13:06 CEST, marking the start of the LHC research programme. Particle physicists around the world are looking forward to a potentially rich harvest of new physics as the LHC begins its first long run at an energy three and a half times higher than previously achieved at a particle accelerator.</p>
<p>“It’s a great day to be a particle physicist,” said CERN<sup><a href="#footnote1">1</a></sup> Director General Rolf Heuer. “A lot of people have waited a long time for this moment, but their patience and dedication is starting to pay dividends.”</p>
<p>“With these record-shattering collision energies, the LHC experiments are propelled into a vast region to explore, and the hunt begins for dark matter, new forces, new dimensions and the Higgs boson,” said ATLAS collaboration spokesperson, Fabiola Gianotti. “The fact that the experiments have published papers already on the basis of last year’s data bodes very well for this first physics run.”</p>
<p>“We’ve all been impressed with the way the LHC has performed so far,” said Guido Tonelli, spokesperson of the CMS experiment, “and it’s particularly gratifying to see how well our particle detectors are working while our physics teams worldwide are already analysing data. We’ll address soon some of the major puzzles of modern physics like the origin of mass, the grand unification of forces and the presence of abundant dark matter in the universe. I expect very exciting times in front of us.”</p>
<p>"This is the moment we have been waiting and preparing for", said ALICE spokesperson Jürgen Schukraft. "We're very much looking forward to the results from proton collisions, and later this year from lead-ion collisions, to give us new insights into the nature of the strong interaction and the evolution of matter in the early Universe."</p>
<p>“LHCb is ready for physics,” said the experiment’s spokesperson Andrei Golutvin, “we have a great research programme ahead of us exploring the nature of matter-antimatter asymmetry more profoundly than has ever been done before.”</p>
<p>CERN will run the LHC for 18-24 months with the objective of delivering enough data to the experiments to make significant advances across a wide range of physics channels. As soon as they have "re-discovered" the known Standard Model particles, a necessary precursor to looking for new physics, the LHC experiments will start the systematic search for the Higgs boson. With the amount of data expected, called one inverse femtobarn by physicists, the combined analysis of ATLAS and CMS will be able to explore a wide mass range, and there’s even a chance of discovery if the Higgs has a mass near 160 GeV. If it’s much lighter or very heavy, it will be harder to find in this first LHC run.</p>
<p>For supersymmetry, ATLAS and CMS will each have enough data to double today’s sensitivity to certain new discoveries. Experiments today are sensitive to some supersymmetric particles with masses up to 400 GeV. An inverse femtobarn at the LHC pushes the discovery range up to 800 GeV.</p>
<p>“The LHC has a real chance over the next two years of discovering supersymmetric particles,” explained Heuer, “and possibly giving insights into the composition of about a quarter of the Universe.”</p>
<p>Even at the more exotic end of the LHC’s potential discovery spectrum, this LHC run will extend the current reach by a factor of two. LHC experiments will be sensitive to new massive particles indicating the presence of extra dimensions up to masses of 2 TeV, where today’s reach is around 1 TeV.</p>
<p>“Over 2000 graduate students are eagerly awaiting data from the LHC experiments,” said Heuer. “They’re a privileged bunch, set to produce the first theses at the new high-energy frontier.”</p>
<p>Following this run, the LHC will shutdown for routine maintenance, and to complete the repairs and consolidation work needed to reach the LHC’s design energy of 14 TeV following the incident of 19 September 2008. Traditionally, CERN has operated its accelerators on an annual cycle, running for seven to eight months with a four to five month shutdown each year. Being a cryogenic machine operating at very low temperature, the LHC takes about a month to bring up to room temperature and another month to cool down. A four-month shutdown as part of an annual cycle no longer makes sense for such a machine, so CERN has decided to move to a longer cycle with longer periods of operation accompanied by longer shutdown periods when needed.</p>
<p>“Two years of continuous running is a tall order both for the LHC operators and the experiments, but it will be well worth the effort,” said Heuer. “By starting with a long run and concentrating preparations for 14 TeV collisions into a single shutdown, we’re increasing the overall running time over the next three years, making up for lost time and giving the experiments the chance to make their mark.”</p>
<h3>More information</h3>
<p><a href="http://cern.ch/press/lhc-first-physics/">http://cern.ch/press/lhc-first-physics/</a></p>
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<p>CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is the world's leading laboratory for particle physics. It has its headquarters in Geneva. At present, its Member States are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Romania is a candidate for accession. Israel is an Associate Member in the pre-stage to Membership. India, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United States of America, Turkey, the European Commission and UNESCO have Observer status.</p>
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Tue, 30 Mar 2010 09:00:00 +0000Cian O'Luanaigh145 at http://press.web.cern.chCERN sets date for first attempt at 7 TeV collisions in the LHChttp://press.web.cern.ch/press-releases/2010/03/cern-sets-date-first-attempt-7-tev-collisions-lhc
<span class="submitted-by">23 Mar 2010</span>
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<p>Geneva, 23 March 2010. With beams routinely circulating in the Large Hadron Collider at 3.5 TeV, the highest energy yet achieved in a particle accelerator, CERN has set the date for the start of the LHC research programme. The first attempt for collisions at 7 TeV (3.5 TeV per beam) is scheduled for 30 March.</p>
<p>“With two beams at 3.5 TeV, we’re on the verge of launching the LHC physics programme,” explained CERN’s Director for Accelerators and Technology, Steve Myers. “But we’ve still got a lot of work to do before collisions. Just lining the beams up is a challenge in itself: it’s a bit like firing needles across the Atlantic and getting them to collide half way.”</p>
<p>Between now and 30 March, the LHC team will be working with 3.5 TeV beams to commission the beam control systems and the systems that protect the particle detectors from stray particles. All these systems must be fully commissioned before collisions can begin.</p>
<p>“The LHC is not a turnkey machine,” said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer.“The machine is working well, but we’re still very much in a commissioning phase and we have to recognize that the first attempt to collide is precisely that. It may take hours or even days to get collisions.”</p>
<p>The last time CERN switched on a major new research machine, the Large Electron Positron collider, LEP, in 1989 it took three days from the first attempt to collide to the first recorded collisions.</p>
<p>The current LHC run began on 20 November 2009, with the first circulating beam at 0.45 TeV. Milestones were quick to follow, with twin circulating beams established by 23 November and a world record beam energy of 1.18 TeV being set on 30 November. By the time the LHC switched off for 2009 on 16 December, another record had been set with collisions recorded at 2.36 TeV and significant quantities of data recorded. Over the 2009 part of the run, each of the LHC’s four major experiments, ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb recorded over a million particle collisions, which were distributed smoothly for analysis around the world on the LHC computing grid. The first physics papers were soon to follow. After a short technical stop, beams were again circulating on 28 February 2010, and the first acceleration to 3.5 TeV was on 19 March.</p>
<p>Once 7 TeV collisions have been established, the plan is to run continuously for a period of 18-24 months, with a short technical stop at the end of 2010. This will bring enough data across all the potential discovery areas to firmly establish the LHC as the world’s foremost facility for high-energy particle physics.</p>
<p>A webcast will be available on the day of the first attempt to collide protons at 7TeV. More details will be available at: <a href="http://press.web.cern.ch/press/lhc-first-physics/">http://press.web.cern.ch/press/lhc-first-physics/</a></p>
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<p>CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is the world's leading laboratory for particle physics. It has its headquarters in Geneva. At present, its Member States are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Romania is a candidate for accession. Israel is an Associate Member in the pre-stage to Membership. India, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United States of America, Turkey, the European Commission and UNESCO have Observer status.</p>
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Tue, 23 Mar 2010 09:00:00 +0000Cian O'Luanaigh147 at http://press.web.cern.chLHC sets new record – accelerates beam to 3.5 TeVhttp://press.web.cern.ch/press-releases/2010/03/lhc-sets-new-record-accelerates-beam-35-tev
<span class="submitted-by">19 Mar 2010</span>
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<a href="http://press.web.cern.ch/sites/press.web.cern.ch/files/image/press/old/3.5TEV%20screen.png"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://press.web.cern.ch/sites/press.web.cern.ch/files/image/press/old/3.5TEV%20screen.png" width="639" height="480" alt="" /></a> </div>
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<p>A screenshot of the main LHC display screen this morning, after the successful ramp in energy</p>
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<p>Geneva, 19 March 2010. At just after 5:20 this morning, two 3.5 TeV proton beams successfully circulated in the Large Hadron Collider for the first time. This is the highest energy yet achieved in a particle accelerator, and an important step on the way to the start of the LHC research programme. The first attempt to collide beams at 7 TeV (3.5 TeV per beam) will follow on a date to be announced in the near future.</p>
<p>“Getting the beams to 3.5 TeV is testimony to the soundness of the LHC’s overall design, and the improvements we’ve made since the breakdown in September 2008,” explained CERN<sup><a href="#footnote1">1</a></sup>’s Director for Accelerators and Technology, Steve Myers. “And it’s a great credit to the patience and dedication of the LHC team.”</p>
<p>The current LHC run began on 20 November 2009, with the first circulating beam at 0.45 TeV. Milestones were quick to follow, with twin circulating beams established by 23 November and a world record beam energy of 1.18 TeV being set on 30 November. By the time the LHC switched off for 2009 on 16 December, another record had been set with collisions recorded at 2.36 TeV and significant quantities of data recorded. Over the 2009 part of the run, each of the LHC’s four major experiments, ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb recorded over a million particle collisions, which were distributed smoothly for analysis around the world on the LHC computing grid. The first physics papers were soon to follow.</p>
<p>After the 2.36 TeV collisions, a technical stop ensued at the beginning of 2010, during which the machine was prepared for higher-energy running. Higher energy collisions require higher electrical currents in the LHC magnet circuits. This places more exacting demands on the new machine protection systems, which have now been readied for the task.</p>
<p>Once 7 TeV collisions have been established, the plan is to run continuously for a period of 18-24 months, with a short technical stop at the end of 2010. This will bring enough data across all the potential discovery areas to firmly establish the LHC as the world’s foremost facility for high-energy particle physics.</p>
<p><a href="http://user.web.cern.ch/user/news/2010/100319.html">Read a message from CERN Director General, Rolf Heuer</a>.</p>
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<p>CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is the world's leading laboratory for particle physics. It has its headquarters in Geneva. At present, its Member States are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Romania is a candidate for accession. Israel is an Associate Member in the pre-stage to Membership. India, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United States of America, Turkey, the European Commission and UNESCO have Observer status.</p>
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Fri, 19 Mar 2010 09:00:00 +0000Cian O'Luanaigh149 at http://press.web.cern.chCERN to celebrate International Women’s dayhttp://press.web.cern.ch/press-releases/2010/03/cern-celebrate-international-womens-day
<span class="submitted-by">04 Mar 2010</span>
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<p>Geneva, 4 March 2010. On Monday 8 March, CERN<sup><a href="#footnote1">1</a></sup> will take on a distinctly feminine look as the laboratory celebrates the role of women in physics. Often seen as a male preserve, the reality is rather different, with women playing key roles across all areas of CERN activity.</p>
<p>“At CERN, and in particle physics the world over, talent is the only criterion that counts,” said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer. “Gender, race and religion have no part to play in finding the right person for the job.”</p>
<p>On women’s day, CERN will be sending a clear message to any young women interested in science and engineering that this is a field for them. In the CERN Control Centre, half the Engineers-in-Charge who take responsibility for operating the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s most powerful particle accelerator are women. In the experiments, in all CERN departments and in the management, women are increasingly represented.</p>
<p>For women’s day, CERN is encouraging its staff and users to enable as many women as possible to be on shift in the control rooms of the laboratory’s experiments and accelerators, to staff the IT helpdesk and to guide official visits.</p>
<p>“The fact that we can do this easily may come as a surprise to those who don’t know us better,” said Heuer, “but it’s no surprise to me. Curiosity, the main prerequisite for being a researcher, is a shared characteristic of all humankind and that’s reflected in the CERN community. Men and women from all over the world come here to pursue their research, and the diversity they bring is one of our greatest assets.”</p>
<p>The US laboratory, Fermilab, is also celebrating women’s day in similar style, and at 15:30CET, there will be a videoconference link between the two labs.</p>
<p>Full details of International Women's Day at CERN can be found at: <a href="http://cern.ch/womensday">http://cern.ch/womensday</a></p>
<h3>CERN Contact</h3>
<p>Renilde Vanden Broeck, +41 22 767 2141, <a href="mailto:Renilde.Vanden.Broeck@cern.ch">Renilde.Vanden.Broeck@cern.ch</a></p>
<h3>Fermilab contact</h3>
<p>Elizabeth Clements, +1 630 840 2326, <a href="mailto:lizzie@fnal.gov">lizzie@fnal.gov</a><br /><a href="http://www.fnal.gov/pub/diversity/womens_history/index.html">http://www.fnal.gov/pub/diversity/womens_history/index.html</a></p>
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<p>CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is the world's leading laboratory for particle physics. It has its headquarters in Geneva. At present, its Member States are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Romania is a candidate for accession. Israel is an Associate Member in the pre-stage to Membership. India, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United States of America, Turkey, the European Commission and UNESCO have Observer status.</p>
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Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:00:00 +0000Cian O'Luanaigh152 at http://press.web.cern.ch